Reviews
Esnesnon, a collection of nonsense poetry and prose by Eamer O’Keeffe,
ISBN 0 9522404 6 7, A5, 36pp, Cicatrix, B/M Cicatrix, London, WCIN 3XX, £3.75
The risibility of these pieces fluctuates wildly between ‘so what?’ and hilarity, but while I felt the ‘misses’ outnumbered the ‘hits’, the quality of the ‘hits’ made reading this little book very worthwhile. I am not intending to be critical, but merely acknowledging what appears to be a feature of writing ‘nonsense’ pieces. And ‘nonsense’ should not be equated with ‘meaningless’. The best of this book is very funny indeed - much more so than anything by Spike Milligan or Edward Lear - and I would actually class them as parodies, or contemporary DADA, rather than pure nonsense pieces. I would like to quote more than space allows, so the following selection was achieved with some difficulty, but here goes:
‘The synchronization of unfettered motes / demonstrates the marginality of / tetrarchan bonnets - an oblivious / extrapolation in parsing a blank purse’
A Crake's Tier.
‘If your thirst won’t suck seed, toss a fried sponge’
Clitches.
‘The occlusion of leaden follicles into the proverbial chassis of found and concrete pottery can lead to unconsciousness’
Tegemonic Concourse.
‘The word, professed by a rank pasture, begets such magic sand’
Anaxaret.
My one criticism is that the header lines to each piece - ‘a menacing fairy tale’ - are unnecessary. These pieces speak for themselves. It’s a dim reader who needs any help. Thanks for the laughs, Eamer.
Page(s) 13-14
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